Teething is a bitch...

There’s not if’s, an’s or but’s about it, teething is a bitch for infants. Seriously, it’s horrible and frustrating and yes, this mom is pretty much at her wit’s end!!!

Currently, the only time that my son Ryan doesn’t cry is when he’s sleeping. Otherwise, it’s tears and screams and I just want this tooth to break through his swollen gums so he can feel better. I mean like, holy buckets, he has cried more in the past four days than he has during the four and a half months of his entire life.I'm not kidding, he cries so much that it almost makes me cry. :(

Ryan's arsenal of teething toys!

He’s typically a happy and chill little dude, but not now, nope, he’s all over the place and it’s been crazy to try and handle. It makes me feel like I’m a bad mother given that I can’t help ease his pain. Sure, we’ve tried the teething toys along with giving him some weird Oral gel stuff to put on his gums, yet, it just kind of masks everything that he’s going through for a few minutes and we end up right back where we started with him being uncomfortable. It’s a vicious cycle and I just try to comfort him the best that I can by holding him and doing the momma bounce all around the living room. Sometimes it helps, other times not, and one thing that I’ve found out is he really loves it when I sing to him, so, if he’s totally going off crying with the whole lip quiver thing, I start singing and he actually likes it. It makes me smile to see him kind of happy when he’s dealing this sharp little razor blade breaking through his gums. 

Oh and one thing that I forgot to mention with how much teething is not fun is all the snot that has been pouring out of Ryan’s nose and the drool that has been ooking out of his mouth. I had no idea that one little kid could produce so many bodily fluids. We now have two separate burp clothes to clean up the mess so we don’t cross-contaminate because we don’t want him to end up getting a cold, which he kind of has already. We know this because Dave and I took him to see our pediatrician due to the fact that Ryan was running a fever and that we thought he was teething. The pediatrician told us that Ryan had a bit of a cold and that he was in fact teething. He said that we had to really watch everything we do with him so the cold doesn’t get worse. That means, sucking out snot from his nose (which he hates), standing in a hot, steamy bathroom with him with the shower with him to help with the snot drainage, running a vaporizer in his room, and giving him cold medicine every once and awhile to keep his fever in check. So far, it all seems to be working. :) 

What’s keeping me from going off the deep end and going completely insane during my son’s teething is Dave. Without him, I don’t think I could take Ryan being so unhappy and his support has been pretty outstanding. We take turns holding and comforting the little man, taking over for each other when it becomes too much. I’m going to be honest here, having our son scream and cry and snot and drool and cry and drool and cry and scream and cry and snot can be a bit much at times. However, because we are doing it with each other’s help, it’s been way easier to deal with. Thanks honey, love you!

With that, I’m going to end this post for the day! Hopefully the next time I blog, it will be about Ryan officially getting his first tooth! :) Geez, I’m hoping it happens soon!

I want to be able to provide for my son.

Okay, the last few weeks have been tough for our family, reason being, I was recently laid off from my job. This is the third time in my professional career that I’ve been laid off for budgetary reasons and what’s worse, is that it’s the second time I’ve been laid off during the holidays.

Being laid off is not a fun experience and now that I have a child, it’s even more stressful. I want to be able to provide for my son and give him everything that he needs to be successful in life. But, now that I don’t have a job and have had to file for unemployment, I feel like a complete failure and that I’m not a good parent. My family and friends have told me that I shouldn’t feel that way, yet, for some reason I can’t stop beating myself about what has happened. None of the lay-offs that I’ve been through have been my fault and despite knowing that, I still feel pretty down about it all.

So I guess you could say, I’ve been in a bit of a funk since I’ve lost my job and that’s why I haven’t really been blogging as much as I have before. Being able to be with Ryan day to day has cheered me up, however, at the same time, it makes me sad since I should be going to work to get him what he needs. It’s a catch-22 to say the least and given that it’s challenging to look for a job with him around sometimes, he’s still been going to day care so I can scour the Internet to find places to apply and submit resumes to. Nothing has popped up yet and I’m trying to stay positive that something will. It’s hard though, it’s hard to stay positive due to the fact that during this time of year, no one really hires. I’m going to keep plugging away though in hope of that my hard work will result in a new opportunity. Fingers crossed.

On a fun and happy note, yesterday was Thanksgiving and I was able to enjoy it with Ryan and my entire family. My husband Dave, my mom, dad and brother, and Dave’s kids and grand-kid. It was a nice break from the job hunting pressure and I’m thankful for having all of them in my life.

In the end, I firmly believe that everything happens for a reason and that’s how I’m approaching this recent lay-off. I keep telling myself that it will all work out and that something good will come out of this challenge set before me. God works in mysterious ways and I can’t wait for what’s going to happen next!  :)

Thinking about the holidays...

I’ve always loved celebrating the holidays, but this year, I’m even more excited for them because I get to share them with my son. There’s something about it that just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, which is pretty cool and something I'm not all that used to.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve felt happy and excited about things in the past and have had warm and fuzzy feelings before, yet, now it’s at a whole other level that is quite surprising to me. It’s a good surprise though and I’m so blessed to have Ryan bring so much happiness into my life. I knew that he was going to have a positive effect on things, however, like I just said, it’s been so eye opening how much joy and positive energy he has brought into my life that I can only help but smile about it all. Thanks little man.

Pumpkin Ryan!

Now back to the holidays and why I’m so excited to be able to celebrate them with Ryan. Basically, he just makes them a whole bunch of fun. Case in point: Halloween. I was pretty indifferent to Halloween in the past. For me, it was just another day that involved some candy so, no big deal. The thing is, this year, it was a day that I really, really enjoyed due to the fact that I got to dress up Ryan in a fun little pumpkin outfit. I was almost rolling on the floor laughing since he looked so cute and I even took him over to Grandma and Grandpa’s house to show the little guy off! That in itself was super fun since Grandma was smiling even more than I was when she saw him! Seeing her expression was totally priceless and it was nice to be able to share that happy moment with her.

After how much fun I had during Halloween, I can’t wait for Thanksgiving and Christmas. It’s going to be a great time being able to spend the time with Ryan along with the rest of my family. Presently, I’m looking for some kind of turkey outfit to dress him in for Thanksgiving and for Christmas, the sky is the limit to what this little guy might have to wear. I’m thinking maybe a Santa or reindeer outfit or a little elf or maybe a Christmas tree or a snowman or a candy cane or a misfit toy. Man, the sky is the limit and I can’t wait! If you readers out there have any ideas, just let me know! I would be more than happy to hear them all!

That’s about it for today! Until next time, this is Carla the tomboy and new mom saying, Happy HOLIDAYS! Yes I know, it’s a bit early, but oh well! :)

Oh, my poor hair....

It was going to happen, but I wasn’t quite sure when and now that it’s happening, I’m a bit mortified to be honest. What am I talking about you ask? Well, my hair is falling out and it’s seriously grossing me out. What sucks is that mothers everywhere go through this all the time after their pregnancies and what’s even worse than that, is when people have cancer and go through chemotherapy, all of their hair falls out. I can’t even imagine going through that since I’m freaking out when it comes to what I’m dealing with right now. So to all of you cancer patients out there, props to you and I admire your courage. It must be hard, really, really hard. :(

With that said, I'm going to write about why mothers lose their hair after they have their babies. During pregnancy, women have higher estrogen levels so the hair stays in the growing and resting stages longer and does not fall out. Then, when a woman has her baby, those estrogen levels pretty much plummet and instead of her hair staying in the growing and resting stages, it goes right into the shedding stage and falls out. (Information courtesy of the Babycenter.com) For most mothers, this happens about three or so months after giving birth, yet it can be different for each individual and for myself, it’s been about four months now.

Probably the thing that gets me the most about my hair falling out is how it has been falling out. I mean, I’m in the shower and clumps of it just roll off of my shoulders. I’ve never been a fan of hairballs to begin with and now when I’m done showering, I have to pull a big junk of hair out of the drain. It’s super, duper gross. I won’t even get into what happens when I brush my hair since that’s even more disgusting not to mention the fact that you can find my hair pretty much all over the house. Dave has even been kidding me about it, telling me to stop dropping my hair everywhere. Hmm, maybe I could make a sweater or something out of all of it? LOL, that would be really icktastic! And yes, I was going to post a picture of one of the hair clumps I took out of the shower, however, decided against it since I couldn’t put all of you through that! :0)

Anyway, from what I’ve ready, it could take almost a year for my hair to get back to normal and in the meantime, there’s really not all that much that I can do about it. So, I’m just trying to roll with what’s going on and hope it stops falling out sooner rather than later. That’s easier said than done mind you given that I’m the type of person who likes to be in control of things and this is something I definitely have no control over. It hasn’t been fun, yet, when I think about people with cancer going through chemo, I tell myself I have it easy and to just deal. Again, props to all of you who have cancer and are dealing with what you’re dealing with. I wear my yellow Livestrong bracelet for you! :)

To learn more about hair loss after pregnancy, check out these websites:

http://www.babycenter.com/0_postpartum-hair-loss_11721.bc

http://www.babycenter.com/404_is-it-normal-to-lose-hair-after-giving-birth_1335883.bc

http://www.whattoexpect.com/pregnancy/symptoms-and-solutions/postpartum-hair-loss.aspx

Well, that’s about all I got for today! Have a good one!

Is it wrong that I want my son to play sports?

So this morning, I’m watching Mike and Mike In the Morning on ESPN2 and a thought just popped into my mind and I want to write about it quick. I was thinking, is it wrong that I want Ryan to play sports just like I did? 

I think everyone who is a parent wants their child to take part in the same things that they themselves enjoy and for me, that’s being an athlete and playing sports. For other parents it might be playing the piano or cooking or making movies. However for me, it's sports and I guess the question I’m grappling with is not whether or not it’s wrong that I want my little man to play sports, but is it wrong that I’m doing whatever I can to get him to like them as much as I do? So, I’m slowly introducing things to him and I’m afraid at some point that I’m going to end up just forcing it on him and that’s not what I want to do at all. I want him to decide what he likes and doesn’t like, thus, I’m not sure how much is too much?

For example, one of the first toys that I got him was a football. Sure, it wasn’t a real football since it’s basically shaped like a football and is full of holes so he can grab it. I got it for him for two reasons. The first is because he’s starting to use his hands to grab things pretty much  non-stop, so, instead of reaching for my hair or pulling at my hands when we’re playing, I wanted to give him something else to reach and grab for. He really seems to like it and occasionally he’ll inadvertently throw it. It’s kind of funny and makes us both giggle a whole bunch. :)

Ryan's first football! :)

Now, the second reason I got it for him was because yes, the toy is in the shape of a football and I would like it if someday, he is up for playing sports just like me. So, I’ve introduced him to something sport related at an early age in hopes of that. And for the record, the little guy does have other toys too including a cute little monkey rattle along with a fun teddy bear and a few other toys appropriate for his age.

As a family, we do like watching sports together, especially the Packers on Sunday. It’s just a nice way to for all of us to bond and while we watch the Packers take the team's opponent that week, we generally cuddle, play, and just have a good time. Sometimes Dave and I joke about how Ryan might be a left handed relief pitcher someday or a place kicker, even a professional golfer. It’s all in fun though since him being those things would be cool, yet, it’s ultimately up to him what he wants to pursue in life. Whatever he decides to do, as long as it’s positive and productive, is something that I’ll be proud of him for!

To be honest, I guess I don’t see anything wrong with trying to get him to like sports at an early age and I am going to do my best to keep things balanced to open his eyes to other things as well. I read to him every day, we also listen to music, and my goal is to introduce him to as many other activities I can as soon as he is able. The biggest thing that I’m worried about is if he doesn’t like sports and I just force him into it anyway. I just do not, repeat, do not want to do that and I think because I realize now what I don’t want to do that I’m not going to do it. I do not want to be one of those overzealous parents that burn out their children with things their children don’t really want to do. It’s pretty sad to say the least. To make sure I’m not one of them, I’m preparing myself to be ready just in case Ryan doesn’t want to play sports. It will break my heart, but I need to be ready if it happens.

Basically like I said, I think things are all about balance when it comes to wanting your child to do something whether it’s playing sports or an instrument or whatever. By doing that, then I believe that you open up different options for him or her and then he or she can decide what he or she wants to do. I’m going to go with that approach for now. I think it's a good one. We'll see what happens! :) If you readers out there have any tips or suggestions, please let me know! And with that, this is Carla the new mom and tomboy signing off!